Lord McKenzie of Luton: My right honourable friend the Paymaster General (Dawn Primarolo) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	Legislation will be included in the next Finance Bill to stop financial institutions and share dealers claiming wholly artificial losses by buying and selling the right to a dividend on shares and claiming that the sale proceeds are exempt from tax.
	Schemes have been disclosed to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) under the legislation in Part 7 of the Finance Act 2004 which seek to exploit a perceived weakness in Section 730 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act. HMRC believes that the schemes may not work, but to put the matter beyond doubt, subsection (3) of Section 730 will be repealed.
	The repeal will be effective in relation to any sale, transfer or other realisation of a right to receive a dividend taking place on or after today.